BRUGIÈRE, Pierre. – Publicist and constitutionalist priest, born at Thiers on 3 Oct. 1730, died in Paris on 7 Nov. 1803. Canon at Thiers, he refused to subscribe to the formula of acceptance of the bull Unigenitus. In 1768 he was in Paris in the community of St Roch, having previously exercised his ministry at Clermont, Riom and Brioude. Having sworn the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which he defended against ecclesiastical censures, he obtained, also because of his Jansenist leanings, the parish of St Paul; he nevertheless remained always faithful to celibacy, even protesting against the Archbishop of Paris for having granted canonical institution to a married priest. Because of this he became suspect to the Constituent Assembly and was imprisoned, but soon released; and similarly on two other occasions for illicit exercise of ministry. In 1797 and 1801 he attended the councils of the constitutionalist clergy.
Stubborn and fanatical in his schism, even after the return of his constitutionalist colleagues and after the Concordat, he attempted to perpetuate the schism by founding the Society of Christian Philosophy. Misled by Jansenist, Gallican and Enlightenment principles which delivered him into the hands of the Revolution, he was the driving force behind the secessionist movement of the Constitutional Church, whose history might be written by tracing the history of his writings. As a Jansenist he opposed the cult of the Sacred Heart, and even entertained original ideas about the Virgin. As a Gallican he questioned the principle of ecclesiastical authority and advocated an innovation aimed at introducing the vernacular into liturgical functions and the administration of the sacraments.
Of his many writings, the following deserve special mention: *Instructions catholiques sur la dévotion au Sacré-Coeur de Jésus* (Paris 1777); *Discours patriotique au sujet des brefs du pape* (ibid. 1791); *Réflexions d'un curé constitutionnel sur le décret de l'assemblée nationale concernant le mariage* (ibid. 1791); *Lettre d'un curé sur le décret qui supprime le costume des prêtres* (ibid. 1791); *Le nouveau disciple de Luther* (ibid. 1792); *Appel au peuple français concernant l'admission de la langue française dans l'administration des Sacrements* (1798); *Avis aux fidèles sur la rétractation du serment civique* (ibid. 1800); *Observations des fidèles à MM. les évêques de France* (ibid. 1802); *Instructions choisies* (ibid. 1804).